Context driven navigation presentation

ABSTRACT

Some embodiments of the invention provide several novel methods for generating a navigation presentation that displays a device navigating a route on a map. The method of some embodiments uses a virtual camera that, based on detected changes in the navigation context, dynamically modifies the way it captures portions of the map to produce different navigation scenes in the navigation presentation. To generate the navigation scenes, the method of some embodiments (1) identifies different sets of attributes that describe the different navigation contexts at different times during the navigation presentation, and (2) uses these different sets of attributes to identify different styles for operating the virtual camera. In some embodiments, the method uses an identified style to specify the virtual camera&#39;s positional attributes, which, in turn, define the portions of the map that the virtual camera identifies for rendering to produce several navigation scenes for a period of time (e.g., until the navigation context changes, or until the navigation presentation ends when the navigation context does not change again). During the navigation presentation, each time the navigation context changes, the identified set of attributes may change. This change, in turn, may cause the method of some embodiments to select a new style for operating the virtual camera. When the style for operating the virtual camera changes, the method of some embodiments modifies the way the virtual camera captures the portion of the map to render.

BACKGROUND

Today, more than ever, people rely on turn-by-turn navigationpresentations to navigate routes to their desired destinations. Manyvehicle information systems provide such navigation presentations as oneof their features. Also, most mobile devices (e.g., smartphones,tablets, etc.) execute navigation applications that provide suchpresentations. Unfortunately, the designs of typical navigationpresentations have not evolved much in recent years. They often providestatic navigation presentations that do not adjust to changes in thenavigated routes.

SUMMARY

Some embodiments of the invention provide several novel methods forgenerating a navigation presentation that displays a device navigating aroute on a map. The method of some embodiments uses a virtual camerathat, based on detected changes in the navigation context, dynamicallymodifies the way it captures portions of the map to produce differentnavigation scenes in the navigation presentation. In some embodiments, avirtual camera is a conceptual representation of the field of view thatis defined to emanate from a particular location and orientation in the3D map coordinate system.

To generate the navigation scenes, the method identifies different setsof attributes that describe the navigation context at different timesduring the navigation. Examples of such attributes include the type ofroad currently being navigated, the posted speed limit for the currentroad, the distance to the next maneuver in the route, the type of nextmaneuver (e.g., whether the maneuver is a grouped maneuver, aroundabout, an exit ramp, close to other upcoming maneuvers, etc.), thenumber of nearby maneuvers after the next maneuver, the navigationstatus (e.g., on-route, off-route, recalculating-route), etc.

After identifying the set of attributes that describe a new navigationcontext, the method uses this set of attributes to identify a style foroperating the virtual camera. In some embodiments, a data structure onthe device stores several styles based on their associated set ofattributes. In these embodiments, the method identifies a style for anew attribute set by comparing this attribute set with the set ofattributes of the stored styles in order to find a style with a matchingattribute set.

The method then provides the identified style to a virtual camera (VC)engine, which uses this style to identify positional attributes of thevirtual camera. These positional attributes, in turn, define theportions of the map that the virtual camera identifies for rendering toproduce several navigation scenes for a period of time (e.g., until thenavigation context changes, or until the navigation presentation endswhen the navigation context does not change again). As mentioned above,the method of some embodiments repeatedly identifies different sets ofattributes to describe different navigation contexts at different timesin the navigation presentation. Each time the navigation contextchanges, the identified set of attributes may change, and this changemay cause the method of some embodiments to select a new style foroperating the virtual camera. When the style for operating the virtualcamera changes, the VC engine modifies the way the virtual cameracaptures the portion of the map to render.

In the stored set of styles, each style in some embodiments has a set ofproperties from which the VC engine can identify the virtual camera'sangular pitch (e.g., from a top-down position to a perspective angularposition), the virtual camera's rotation (e.g., in an X-Y plane definedby x- and y-axes of the map's coordinate system), and the virtualcamera's distance from a region on the map that it targets (e.g., from adevice-representing puck that travels along the map). In someembodiments, the virtual camera has a system of springs that specify itsangular pitch, rotation, and height, and a style's associated set ofproperties are used to define one or more parameters of the springsystem. The spring system in some embodiments also includes a spring forthe position of the puck on the screen that displays the navigationpresentation (i.e., the display screen on which the virtual cameracaptured view is projected). These embodiments use the spring systembecause this system provides an implicit way to specify the virtualcamera's movement at different instances in time and thereby provide aneasy way to specify a natural animation of the navigated scenes.

In some embodiments, the VC engine generates a set of framing parametersfrom the identified style's set of properties and uses the framingparameters to identify positional attributes of the virtual camera for aperiod of time. In some of these embodiments, the VC engine operates thevirtual camera either in a tracking mode or a framing mode. During thetracking mode, the virtual camera tracks the puck along the route andmaintains the device-representing puck (referred to below as the “puck”)at desired location(s) on the display screen that displays thenavigation presentation. In the framing mode, the virtual camera definesframes to capture collection of points along the route (including thepuck's location) and displays these frames at desired region(s) ofinterest on the display screen as the puck travels along the route.

To generate the navigation presentation, the method of some embodimentsuses the following four coordinate systems: (1) a map coordinate system,(2) a puck coordinate system, (3) a virtual camera coordinate system,and (4) a display screen coordinate system. In some of theseembodiments, the first three coordinate systems are three dimensionalsystems, with x-, y-, and z-axes, while the fourth coordinate system isa two dimensional system with x- and y-axes.

During tracking mode, the VC engine in some embodiments maintains thesame angular orientation (e.g., a zero angular offset) between thevirtual camera's coordinate system and the puck's coordinate system inthe x-y plane of the map's coordinate system. For instance, in someembodiments, the virtual camera points in the same direction as the puckduring the tracking mode in some embodiments. Also, during the trackingmode, the VC engine in some embodiments maintains the positionalrelationship (e.g., a zero offset) between the origins of the VC'scoordinate system and the puck's coordinate systems. In otherembodiments, the VC engine during the tracking mode allows the angularorientation and/or positional relationship to change between the VC andthe puck coordinate systems for a transient period of time (e.g., thetime during which the puck makes a left or right turn) to show morecontext around a maneuver.

During framing mode, the VC engine in some embodiments completely orpartially disassociates the angular rotation of the virtual camera'scoordinate system and the puck's coordinate system. This allows the puckto rotate independently of the map during the framing mode for severalnavigation scenes, and allows the virtual camera to capture more of thedesired region of interest during this mode. During framing mode, the VCengine in some embodiments no longer requires the origin of the VC'scoordinate system to be held at a particular offset with respect to theorigin of the puck's coordinate system. This allows the virtual camerato assume a variety of offset positions to capture more of the usefulmap areas around or ahead of the puck.

In some embodiments, the VC engine disassociates the positional andangular relationships of the virtual camera and the puck during theframing mode by having the virtual camera frame a collection of points,including the puck, for display at a desired region of interest on thedisplay screen. This region of interest is referred to below as a fieldof focus. In some embodiments, the field of focus is a sub-region on thedisplay screen that a designer of the navigation application (thatproduces the navigation presentations) has designated as the desiredlocation for showing the puck and important points about the puck andthe route (e.g., points being framed).

In some embodiments, the puck is the only point that has to be framed inthe collection of points that the VC engine tries to have the virtualcamera frame in the framing mode. For instance, in some embodiments, astyle can define a bounding shape (e.g., a bounding box) that is definedabout the puck for a particular framing operation that is associatedwith the style. During framing, the VC engine projects the collection ofpoints being framed to the display screen coordinate system (e.g., basedon the virtual camera's expected, unadjusted position for the nextnavigation scene). A framing bounding shape (e.g., bounding box) is thendefined in the screen space about the projection of the collection ofpoints. The VC engine then uses the puck's bounding shape to determinehow much the virtual camera's origin can be offset to capture as many ofthe collection of points being framed. This operation clips the framingbounding shape. The zoom level of the virtual camera is then adjusted toalign one of the sides of the framing bounding shape with one of thesides of the sub-region that represents the display screen's field offocus.

Because there are changes in the navigation context while the pucktravels along the navigated route, it is often advantageous for thevirtual camera to capture more of the useful areas around or ahead ofthe puck by completely or partially disassociating its angular rotationand/or origin offset from that of the puck. For example, when a trafficincident (e.g., an accident, road construction, object on the road,traffic congestion, etc.) is detected on the route ahead of the puck,the VC engine in some embodiments switches from operating the virtualcamera in the tracking mode to operating it in the framing mode, so thatit can frame the location of the puck with the location of the trafficincident or the location of a detour route that goes around the locationof the traffic incident. In some embodiments, the virtual cameraperforms this framing operation from a top-down 2D point of view, whilein other embodiments, the virtual camera performs this framing operationfrom a perspective 3D point of view.

The type of road being navigated is another type of context that mayaffect how the VC engine operates the virtual camera. For instance, onwindy roads or on highways/freeways, the VC engine in some embodimentsrepeatedly selects successive upcoming points on the route ahead of thepuck for the virtual camera to frame along with the puck and theintervening points along the route. In some embodiments, the VC engineselects the upcoming points to be farther along the route when theposted speed limit for the road type is faster (e.g., the upcomingpoints are 2 miles from the puck on freeways, 1 mile from the puck onhighways, and 0.5 miles on windy roads).

Also, in some embodiments, the upcoming point for each navigation sceneis used to define the virtual camera's orientation (e.g., the VC enginepoints, or tries to point, the virtual camera in some embodiments to theupcoming point). Because the upcoming points are used for framing acollection of points and/or for identifying the virtual cameraorientation, the curvature in the road ahead can cause the virtualcamera and the puck to rotate independently of each other. Specifically,by using the upcoming locations along the route for orienting the cameraand/or for framing, the VC engine in some embodiments can allow the puckto rotate independently of the map while this engine operates thevirtual camera in the framing mode for certain road types. For instance,in some of these embodiments, when these upcoming locations fall withina first, inner angular range of the puck's orientation, the VC enginerotates the camera with the puck. However, when these upcoming locationsfall within of a second, outer angular range of the puck's orientation,the VC engine of some embodiments maintains the virtual camera pointedon the upcoming locations, which allows the puck to rotate independentlyof the map as it travels along the route.

The VC engine in some embodiments operates the virtual camera in aframing mode when the puck is reaching a freeway and/or highway exitthat is used by a maneuver along the navigated route. For instance, insome embodiments, the virtual camera starts to frame the puck and theexit used by a maneuver, as the puck is within a threshold distance ofthe exit. As the puck gets closer to this exit, the virtual camera insome of these embodiments zooms in to try to maintain the puck and exitwithin the desired field of focus on the display screen. In someembodiments, the virtual camera performs this framing operation from aperspective 3D point of view (e.g., a high zoom 3D point of view), whilein other embodiments, the virtual camera performs this framing operationfrom a top-down 2D point of view.

At times, one exit has multiple ramps that connect to different streetsor to different directions of travel along the same street. In suchsituations, the method of some embodiments identifies, highlights, ordisplays the ramp that is used by the route maneuver differently thanthe other nearby ramps. To help differentiate this ramp from the othernearby ramps, the method of some embodiments directs the virtual camerato frame this ramp along with the puck and one or more of the othernearby ramps. This framing allows the user to clearly view the ramp thatneeds to be used in the context of other nearby ramps. The VC engine insome embodiments has the virtual camera frame the relevant ramp alongwith a maximum number N (e.g., 2) of other nearby ramps.

The VC engine of some embodiments has the virtual camera frame a groupof upcoming maneuvers along the navigated route when these maneuversmeet a set of grouping criteria. Based on the grouping criteria, themethod of some embodiments identifies one or more groups of upcomingmaneuvers dynamically for the navigation presentation after thenavigation presentation is requested (i.e., the method does not requirethese maneuvers to be statically grouped before the navigated route isidentified). By framing the group of upcoming maneuvers, the virtualcamera can produce a navigation presentation that displays severalupcoming maneuvers that are near each other, in order to highlight oneor more maneuvers that follow the next maneuver in the route. For thisframing, the puck can appear at offset locations and can rotateindependently of the map (i.e., of the virtual camera).

The VC engine of some embodiments also operates a virtual camera in aframing mode (1) when the puck passes an arrival point, and/or (2) whenthe puck is off the road network (e.g., is in a parking lot) and needsto reach a departure point to start navigating to the destination. Inboth of these cases, the VC engine has the virtual camera frame the puckand the arrival/departure point in order to help the user direct thepuck towards the arrival/departure point. This is highly useful when auser is having a hard time finding the departure or arrival point, as itkeeps the departure/arrival point in the presentation's field of focuswhile the puck moves around to reach the point. In some embodiments, theVC engine also has the virtual camera to frame other points in additionto the puck and the arrival/departure point, such as nearby points ofinterest (e.g., parking lot or building).

In some embodiments, the virtual camera and the puck not only can behorizontally offset from each other, but also can be vertically offsetfrom each other. In some embodiments, this vertical offset can make thepuck move up or down the screen during the navigation presentation(i.e., can make the puck be at different vertical positions on thescreen at different instances in the navigation presentation). Forinstance, the puck can be vertically offset in order to move up or downthe screen while the virtual camera frames the puck moving along aroundabout. Having the puck move up the screen is also useful when thepuck has to make a U-turn, in order to show more of the route after theturn. For U-turns, the VC engine in some embodiments not only allows thepuck to move up the screen, but also require the puck to be at the topof the frame captured by the virtual camera.

One of ordinary skill will realize that the preceding Summary isintended to serve as a brief introduction to some inventive features ofsome embodiments. Moreover, this Summary is not meant to be anintroduction or overview of all-inventive subject matter disclosed inthis document. The Detailed Description that follows and the Drawingsthat are referred to in the Detailed Description will further describethe embodiments described in the Summary as well as other embodiments.Accordingly, to understand all the embodiments described by thisdocument, a full review of the Summary, Detailed Description and theDrawings is needed. Moreover, the claimed subject matters are not to belimited by the illustrative details in the Summary, Detailed Descriptionand the Drawings, but rather are to be defined by the appended claims,because the claimed subject matters can be embodied in other specificforms without departing from the spirit of the subject matters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The novel features of the invention are set forth in the appendedclaims. However, for purposes of explanation, several embodiments of theinvention are set forth in the following figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates a navigation application that implements the methodof some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates examples of four coordinate systems used by thenavigation application of some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of several operations that the navigationapplication of some embodiments performs to frame a scene.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process that the virtual camera engine performs inorder to have the virtual camera frame a collection of points for onenavigation scene of the navigation presentation.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate an example of how the navigation applicationof some embodiments operates when a traffic incident is detected along anavigated route.

FIG. 6 presents an example that illustrates how the navigationapplication of some embodiments uses upcoming locations on a freeway toframe a collection of points on the route ahead of the puck.

FIG. 7 illustrates examples of constraints that some embodiments defineto define how much a puck can rotate on the map while it travels onwindy roads.

FIG. 8 presents an example that illustrates the framing of a freewayexit at which a puck has to make a maneuver to exit a freeway that is ona navigated route.

FIG. 9 presents an example that illustrates the framing of several rampsassociated with one freeway exit that has one ramp that a puck has touse to exit a navigated freeway.

FIG. 10 presents one example that illustrates the grouping of upcomingmaneuvers and the framing of the maneuvers in a group.

FIG. 11 presents another example that illustrates the grouping ofupcoming maneuvers and the framing of the maneuvers in a group.

FIG. 12 illustrates a process that the navigation module performs insome embodiments to dynamically identify group or groups of maneuversfor a route.

FIG. 13 illustrates one example of a table that lists each maneuveralong one dimension and each grouping criterion along another dimension.

FIG. 14 shows an identical example to that of FIG. 13, except that inthe example of FIG. 14, a second maneuver is not within the secondthreshold distance of the third maneuver.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a puck approaching a U-turn in someembodiments.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of framing a puck and an arrival pointafter the puck passes the arrival point.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of framing a puck and a departure pointbefore a puck gets on a displayed route to commence navigating to adestination.

FIG. 18 is an example of an architecture of such a mobile computingdevice.

FIG. 19 conceptually illustrates another example of an electronic systemwith which some embodiments of the invention are implemented.

FIG. 20 illustrates one possible embodiment of an operating environmentfor a map service and client devices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description of the invention, numerousdetails, examples, and embodiments of the invention are set forth anddescribed. However, it will be clear and apparent to one skilled in theart that the invention is not limited to the embodiments set forth andthat the invention may be practiced without some of the specific detailsand examples discussed.

Some embodiments of the invention provide several novel methods forgenerating a navigation presentation that displays a device navigating aroute on a map. The method of some embodiments uses a virtual camerathat, based on detected changes in the navigation context, dynamicallymodifies the way it captures portions of the map to produce differentnavigation scenes in the navigation presentation. In some embodiments, avirtual camera is a conceptual representation of the field of view thatis defined to emanate from a particular location and orientation in the3D map coordinate system.

To generate the navigation scenes, the method of some embodiments (1)identifies different sets of attributes that describe the differentnavigation contexts at different times during the navigationpresentation, and (2) uses these different sets of attributes toidentify different styles for operating the virtual camera. In someembodiments, the method uses an identified style to specify the virtualcamera's positional attributes, which, in turn, define the portions ofthe map that the virtual camera identifies for rendering to produceseveral navigation scenes for a period of time (e.g., until thenavigation context changes, or until the navigation presentation endswhen the navigation context does not change again). During thenavigation presentation, each time the navigation context changes, theidentified set of attributes may change. This change, in turn, may causethe method of some embodiments to select a new style for operating thevirtual camera. When the style for operating the virtual camera changes,the method of some embodiments modifies the way the virtual cameracaptures the portion of the map to render.

FIG. 1 illustrates a navigation application 100 that implements themethod of some embodiments of the invention. The navigation applicationexecutes on a device (e.g., a mobile device, a vehicle electronicsystem, etc.) to generate a navigation presentation that shows thedevice navigating to a destination. During the navigation presentation,the navigation application detects changes in the navigation context,selects new virtual camera (VC) styles based on the detected changes,and operates its virtual camera based on the selected VC styles todefine the navigation scenes for rendering. Because of its style-drivenvirtual camera, the navigation application can dynamically modify theway it generates the navigation scene during the navigation presentationas the navigation context changes. Moreover, this approach allowsnavigation presentation styles to be easily modified without having tomodify the navigation application's code, by simply having navigationapplication download new styles and use these styles to define how itshould generate its navigation presentations.

As shown, the navigation application 100 includes a navigation module105, a style sheet 110, a style engine 115, a virtual camera engine 120,and a virtual camera 125. The navigation module 105 in some embodiments(1) uses an internal or external route identifying service to identify aroute for the device to navigate to the destination, (2) uses thedevice's location services (e.g., GPS services) to identify the positionof the device as it travels in a region, (3) correlates this position tolocations on or near the generated route, and (4) generates sets ofattributes that describe the different navigation contexts at differenttimes during the navigation presentation. Examples of such attributesinclude the type of road currently being navigated, the posted speedlimit for the current road, the distance to the next maneuver in theroute, the type of next maneuver (e.g., whether the maneuver is agrouped maneuver, a roundabout, an exit ramp, close to other upcomingmaneuvers, etc.), the navigation status (e.g., on-route, off-route,recalculating-route), etc.

In some embodiments, each attribute set has several attributes (e.g.,fifty attributes), and each time one of these attributes changes, theattribute set changes. In some embodiments, a change in the attributeset is viewed as a change to the navigation context. Each time theattribute set changes, the navigation module 105 in some embodimentsprovides this new attribute set to the style engine 115. In otherembodiments, the style engine 115 iteratively queries the navigationmodule 105 for the current attribute set that defines the currentnavigation context. In either of these approaches, the style engine 115of the navigation application 100 can repeatedly receive, from thenavigation module 105, sets of attributes that express differentnavigation contexts at different instances of the navigationpresentation.

Each time the style engine 115 receives a new attribute set from thenavigation module 105, it examines the VC styles stored in the stylesheet 110 to identify a VC style that matches the new attribute set. Thestyle sheet 110 is a data structure that stores several styles. In someembodiments, the navigation application can download new styles from aset of servers, which it then stores in the style sheet 100. Instead ofdownloading styles and storing them in the style sheet, the navigationapplication in some embodiments downloads a new VC style sheet each timethe set of servers has an updated VC style sheet.

For each style, the style sheet 110 in some embodiments stores (1) astyle identifier, and (2) a set of style properties. In someembodiments, the style identifier of a style is defined in terms of aset of attributes. Thus, to identify a VC style that matches a newlyreceived attribute set, the style engine 115 in some embodimentscompares the newly received attribute set with the set of attributes ofthe stored styles in order to identify a style with a matching attributeset. In some embodiments, the style identifiers are derived (e.g., arecomputed) from the associated attribute sets of the styles. Forinstance, in some embodiments, the style identifiers are hash values ofthe attribute sets. To identify a matching style, the style engine inthese embodiments compares the newly received attribute set with thestyle identifiers, by first generating a hash of a newly receivedattribute set, and then using the computed hash value to identify astyle in the style sheet with a matching style identifying hash value.

After identifying a style for a newly received attribute set, the styleengine 115 determines whether the identified style is different from thepreviously identified style that is currently being used to define theoperation of the virtual camera 125. If not, the style engine 115 doesnot provide the VC engine a new style or a new set of VC properties.However, when the identified style is different from the previouslyidentified style, the style engine 115 provides the new style'sassociated set of VC properties to the VC engine 120 of the navigationapplication.

The VC engine 120 identifies positional attributes of the virtual camerabased on the properties sets of the VC styles that it receives from thestyle engine 115. These positional attributes, in turn, define theportions of the map that the virtual camera identifies for rendering toproduce several navigation scenes for a period of time (e.g., until thenavigation context changes, or until the end of the navigationpresentation when the navigation context does not change again). Whenthe navigation module 105 identifies different attribute sets todescribe different navigation contexts, and the style engine 115identifies different VC styles based on these different attribute sets,the style engine 115 provides to the VC engine 120 different VC stylesthat specify different VC properties, which cause this engine to specifydifferent ways that the virtual camera should define the portion of themap to render.

Based on a style's associated set of properties, the VC engine 120 ofsome embodiments identifies the virtual camera's angular pitch (e.g.,from top-down position to a perspective angular position), the virtualcamera's rotation (e.g., in an X-Y plane defined by x- and y-axes of themap's coordinate system), and the virtual camera's distance from aregion on the map that it targets, e.g., from a location of a puck thatrepresents the device in the navigation presentation as the pucknavigates along a route in the presentation. In some embodiments, thevirtual camera has a system of springs that specify its angular pitch,rotation, and height, and a style's associated set of properties areused to define one or more parameters of the spring system. The springsystem in some embodiments also includes a spring for the position ofthe puck on the screen that displays the navigation presentation (i.e.,the display screen on which the virtual camera captured view isprojected). These embodiments use the spring system because this systemprovides an implicit way to specify the virtual camera's movement atdifferent instances in time and an easy way to create the navigationpresentation's animation. This is because the spring's properties (e.g.,stiffness, damping, rest length, etc.) provide a set of parameters thatthe VC engine can rely on to bring the virtual camera's properties totheir desired state smoothly.

In some of these embodiments, the VC engine operates the virtual cameraeither in a tracking mode or a framing mode. During the tracking mode,the virtual camera tracks the puck along the route and maintains thedevice-representing puck (referred to below as the “puck”) at desiredlocation(s) on the display screen that displays the navigationpresentation. The display screen is the display screen of the device insome embodiments, while it is a display screen that is being driven bythe device in other embodiments. In the framing mode, the virtual cameradefines frames (e.g., bounding polygons) to capture collection of pointsalong the route (including the puck's location), and displays theseframes at a desired region of interest on the display screen as the pucktravels along the route. This region of interest on the display screenis referred to as a field of focus in some embodiments.

To generate the navigation presentation, the navigation application ofsome embodiments uses the following four coordinate systems: (1) a mapcoordinate system, (2) a puck coordinate system, (3) a virtual cameracoordinate system, and (4) a display screen coordinate system. In someof these embodiments, the first three coordinate systems are threedimensional systems, with x-, y-, and z-axes, while the fourthcoordinate system is a two dimensional system with x- and y-axes.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of these four coordinate systems.Specifically, it illustrates a 3D map 220 of a region that is beingcaptured by a virtual camera 225 as a puck 230 traverses along a route235. In this example, the virtual camera is at a perspective 3D positionin a 3D map coordinate system 202. From this perspective 3D position,the virtual camera defines a 3D perspective field of view 240 thatserves as all of, or a portion of, a 3D navigation scene of the 3Dnavigation presentation. The virtual camera is a conceptualrepresentation of the field of view that is defined to emanate from aparticular location and orientation in the 3D map coordinate system.

FIG. 2 also illustrates a puck coordinate system 204, a VC coordinatesystem 206, and a display screen coordinate system 208 (which is shownin small form on the screen and a larger form off the screen). Thisfigure also illustrates an arc 265 that represents the virtual cameraangular tilt pitch towards the map. In some embodiments, the virtualcamera can have a pitch that ranges from top-down view (that defines a2D view of the map) to a low perspective pitch (that defines a lowperspective view of the map).

In this example, the display screen 205 is the display screen of amobile device 210 on which the navigation application executes. In otherembodiments, the display screen is a display screen of another device(e.g., a display screen of an information system of a vehicle) that isdriven by the mobile device 210. In other embodiments, the vehicleinformation system executes the navigation application, and thisapplication drives one or more display screens of this system.

Also, in the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the map, puck and cameracoordinate systems 202, 204, and 206 are three dimensional systems, withx-, y-, and z-axes, while the display screen coordinate system 208 is atwo dimensional system with x- and y-axes. When the virtual camera is ata perspective 3D position, the 3D navigation scene that it defines inits field of view 240 is projected onto the 2D coordinate system of thedisplay screen by using a perspective-projection transform in someembodiments. The projection of this field of view 240 is illustrated asbox 270 in FIG. 2.

During tracking mode, the VC engine 120 in some embodiments maintainsthe same angular orientation (e.g., a zero angular offset) between theVC's coordinate system 206 and the puck's coordinate system 204 in thex-y plane 255 of the map's coordinate system. For instance, in someembodiments, the virtual camera 225 points in the same direction as thepuck during the tracking mode in some embodiments. Also, during thetracking mode, the VC engine 120 in some embodiments maintains thepositional relationship (e.g., a zero offset) between the origins of theVC's coordinate system 206 and the puck's coordinate system 204. Inother embodiments, during tracking mode, the VC engine 120 usuallymaintains the angular orientation and/or positional relationship betweenthe VC and puck coordinate systems, but allows the angular orientationand/or positional relationship between these two coordinate systems tochange for a transient period of time (e.g., the time during which thepuck makes a left or right turn) to show more context around a maneuver.

During framing mode, the VC engine 120 in some embodiments completely orpartially disassociates the angular rotation of the virtual camera'scoordinate system 206 and the puck's coordinate system 204. This allowsthe puck to rotate separately from the map during the framing mode, andallows the virtual camera 225 to capture more of the desired region ofinterest during this mode. During framing mode, the VC engine 120 insome embodiments no longer requires the origin of the VC's coordinatesystem 206 to be held at a particular offset (e.g., zero offset) withrespect to the puck's coordinate system 204. This allows the virtualcamera 225 to assume a variety of offset positions to capture more ofthe useful map areas around or ahead of the puck 230.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 completely or partiallydisassociates the positional and angular relationships of the virtualcamera 225 and the puck 230 during the framing mode by having thevirtual camera frame a collection of points (e.g., points along theroute, including the puck) for display at the field of focus on thedisplay screen. In some embodiments, the field of focus is a region onthe display screen that designers of the navigation application havedesignated as the desired location for showing the puck and importantpoints about the puck and the route (e.g., points being framed, such asthe puck and nearby maneuvers). FIG. 2 illustrates one example of afield of focus 275 on the display screen 205 of the mobile device 210.

During the framing mode, the VC engine 120 of some embodiments initiallydefines the virtual camera parameters that would define a VC field ofview that frames the collection of points. After identifying thesevirtual camera parameters, the VC engine in some embodiments adjusts thevirtual camera parameters (e.g., zoom level) in order to try to displaythe virtual camera's field of view at desired region(s) of interest onthe display screen as the puck travels along the route. For example, insome embodiments, the puck is the only point that has to be framed inthe collection of points that the VC engine tries to have the virtualcamera frame in the framing mode. In some of these embodiments, a stylecan define a bounding shape (e.g., a bounding box) that is defined aboutthe puck for a particular framing operation that is associated with thestyle.

During framing, the VC engine projects the collection of points beingframed to the display screen coordinate system (e.g., based on thevirtual camera's expected, unadjusted position for the next navigationscene). A framing bounding shape (e.g., bounding box) is then defined inthe screen space about the projection of the collection of points. TheVC engine then uses the puck's bounding shape to determine how much thevirtual camera's origin can be offset to capture as many of thecollection of points being framed. This operation clips the framingbounding shape. The zoom level of the virtual camera is then adjusted toalign one of the sides of the framing bounding shape with one of thesides of the sub-region that represents the display screen's field offocus.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of these operations in five stages302-310. As shown in this example, the VC engine operates the virtualcamera in a framing mode to capture more of an upcoming right or leftturn in some embodiments. The first stage shows an initial framing box312 that bounds a collection of points that include the puck 350 and aseries of upcoming points 352 along a route. In this example, the puckis about to make a right turn along the route. The initial framing box312 bounds the collection of points that the VC engine ideally wants thevirtual camera to frame. In some embodiments, the displayed collectionof points have been projected onto the display screen coordinate systemfrom the map's 3D coordinate system by using a perspective projectiontransform.

The first stage 302 also shows the puck's bounding box 314 and thedisplay screen's field of focus 316. As mentioned above, the style usedby the VC engine for the framing operation defines the puck's boundingbox, which is a box that identifies acceptable locations for the puck inthe screen space coordinate system. The field of focus 316 is a box onthe display screen that designers of the navigation application havedesignated as the desired location for showing the puck and importantpoints about the puck and the route. The first stage 302 is shown basedon the virtual camera's expected, unadjusted position for the nextnavigation scene (e.g., based on where the spring system will identifyas the next desired view of the virtual camera).

For the camera to capture the points in the initial framing box 312, thecamera has to move to the right, which would push the puck to the lefton the display screen. Fortunately, the puck can move to the left by anamount 380 that is defined by the left side of the puck's bounding box314, as shown by the second stage 304. In moving to the left in itsbounding box, the puck has also moved to the left in the screen's fieldof focus 316. The second stage 314 shows the new position of the cameraas 362; in this example, it is assumed that the camera's prior position(in the first stage 302) was aligned with the puck.

The rightward movement of the camera allows the camera to capture moreof the collection of points after the upcoming right turn. Afteridentifying the virtual camera offset in the second stage 304, the VCengine clips the framing box 312 with the puck's bounding box 314. Thethird stage 306 shows the result of this clip by displaying themodified, clipped framing box 318 with thick, solid lines. After thisclipping, the two boxes that matter are the focus box 316 and themodified framing box 318, which are shown in the fourth stage 308.

The modified framing box 318 corresponds to a particular zoom level ofthe virtual camera. After this clipping, the VC engine adjusts the zoomlevel of the virtual camera so that at least one of the sides of themodified framing box 318 overlaps one of the sides of the focus box 316.This overlap is illustrated in fifth stage 310. This overlap wasachieved by adjusting the zoom level of the virtual camera. In someembodiments, the VC engine does not change the zoom level betweensuccessive scenes during framing mode unless the new zoom level is atleast a threshold minimum amount different than the prior zoom level.This constraint helps ensure that the VC engine does not constantlychange the zoom level (e.g., on a windy road where the puck is travelingfast along opposing close by turns).

FIG. 4 illustrates a process 400 that the VC engine 120 performs inorder to have the virtual camera frame a collection of points for onenavigation scene of the navigation presentation. In some embodiments,the VC engine performs this process for each navigation scene that thevirtual camera has to define while it operates in a framing mode toframe a collection of points. As shown, the process 400 initiallydefines (at 405) the virtual camera's pitch to the pitch property valuethat is specified in the current VC style.

Next, at 410, the process identifies the camera heading based on one ormore of the points in the collection of points. In some embodiments, todefine the heading of the virtual camera, the process 400 selects one ormore of the more important points in the collection of points to frame,such as the last point in the collection of points. For example, whenframing a group of maneuvers, the process defines the direction of thecamera to point to the last maneuver in the group. In some of theseembodiments, the direction of the camera is specified as an angle thathas the angle of a vector that starts from the origin of the camera andends at the last point in the collection of points being framed. The VCengine of some embodiments limits the camera heading identified by thisvector with a pair of min/max heading properties, which are provided inthe VC style in some embodiments.

At 415, the process identifies the virtual camera's origin offset withrespect to the puck's origin. To do this, the process 400 in someembodiments performs the operations described above by reference to FIG.3. Specifically, the process (1) projects the collection of points beingframed to the display screen coordinate system, (2) identifies a framingbounding box in the screen space to bound the projections of thecollection of points, (3) uses the puck's bounding box to identify theoffset and to modify the framing box. In some embodiments, the processprojects the collection of points by using the view matrix that iscomputed based on the spring system's expected position of the virtualcamera for the next scene. The view matrix in some of these embodimentsaccounts for the pitch and orientation parameters that were identifiedat 405 and 410, while it does not account for these parameters in otherembodiments.

In some embodiments, the process 400 computes the project based on theresting camera frame. This camera frame uses the current location of thepuck, the ideal heading and pitch, and the current distance from thetarget point as computed in the previous frame. In some embodiments, theideal heading is computed based on the state of the application and thestyle sheet, while the ideal pitch is computed based on the style sheet.The projection is used to project the points to the frame, which arethen used to compute a new target distance and a new target position ofthe puck on the screen.

Next, at 420, the process identifies a zoom level for the virtual camerabased on the modified framing box identified at 415. Lastly, the processadjusts (at 425) the virtual camera's zoom level until at least one ofthe sides of the framing box overlaps one of the sides of the focus box.After 425, the process ends. In some embodiments, the VC engine tries toset one or more of the VC parameters (e.g., pitch, orientation, zoomlevel, etc.) to the values identified by the process 400, but in somecases, it does not set these parameters to these values based on one ormore constraints that it has to respect, such as the zoom levelconstraint described above for windy roads. Also, in the above describedexamples of FIGS. 2-4, the virtual camera's field of view only defines aportion of the navigation scene displayed on the screen. To define theentire navigation scene, the VC engine selects buffer boundaries aroundthe virtual camera's field of view that define the entire navigationscene for rendering. In other embodiments, the VC engine uses twodifferent virtual cameras, a first virtual that is a stylized camerathat defines the content of the framing box in the field of focus, and asecond virtual camera that is aligned with the orientation of the firstcamera but captures a larger scene that includes the scene captured bythe first virtual camera.

A traffic incident along a navigated route is one type of change in thenavigation context that prompts the navigation application of someembodiments to switch to a framing mode of operation to frame acollection of upcoming points along the route in order to provide theuser with a view what lies ahead on the route. FIGS. 5A and 5Billustrate an example of how the navigation application of someembodiments operates when a traffic incident is detected along anavigated route. This example is illustrated in terms of four navigationscenes 502-508 of a navigation presentation that is provided by thenavigation application of some embodiments. For each of these navigationscenes, FIGS. 5A and 5B also illustrate an operational stage 512, 514,516, or 518 that shows the position of a virtual camera 565 that is usedto generate the navigation scene.

The first scene 502 shows a puck 550 navigating along a route 555 in a3D map scene 560. This scene 502 is generated based on a field of view570 of the virtual camera 565 from the perspective 3D position shown inthe first stage 512. As the puck 550 travels along the route 555, itnears a location 582 in the route that has an associated trafficincident, such as an accident, road construction, traffic congestion orother incident. The navigation module 105 detects this incident, andidentifies a new route 584 that avoids the location of this incident. Asfurther described below, the new route is similar to the old route 555in this example, except that the new route has a detour portion thatgoes around the incident location 582 in the old route. In other cases,the new route might differ more substantially from the old route (e.g.,might not overlap with the old route after the location of where the tworoutes diverge).

After detecting the traffic incident, the navigation module 105 producesan attribute set that specifies an upcoming traffic incident, andprovides this attribute set to the style engine 115. In someembodiments, the navigation module 105 also provides a set of locationsto frame in the new route to the VC engine 120. Based on the newattribute set, the style engine 115 identifies a new VC style in thestyle sheet 110, and provides the parameter set of this new VC style tothe VC engine 120. The VC engine 120 then uses the provided parameterset to define the positional attributes (e.g., pitch, orientation andheight) of the virtual camera so that the virtual camera can frame thedesired locations along the old route and the new route at the desiredlocation (e.g., within the field of focus) on the display screen. Insome embodiments, the collection of points for framing are the locationof the puck, a set of one or more locations on the current route at ornear the location of the traffic incident, and a set of one or morelocations on the new route that circumvents the incident location.

It is important to note that all of these operations are performedwithout any input from the person viewing the navigation presentation.In others words, after detecting the traffic incident, without receivingany user input, the navigation application switches from its trackingmode to a framing mode that produces several scenes that frame the puckand the locations along the current and new routes 555 and 584. Thesecond scene 504 of FIG. 5A is one of these scenes. As shown, the secondscene 504 is a top-down 2D view of the puck 550, the incident location582, and the new route 584.

The second stage 514 shows that to produce this 3D view, the virtualcamera 565 moves to a position that allows it to frame the puck 550, theincident location 582, and the new route 584 in its field of view 588,as it points straight down towards the map. In some embodiments, thenavigation application produces a sequence of scenes between the firstand second scenes 502 and 504 that provide a smooth navigation animationthat shows the navigation view switching from a 3D perspective positionbehind the puck to top-down 2D view shown in the second stage 514. Thevirtual camera's changing fields of view produce this animation as thevirtual camera moves from the perspective 3D view of the first stage 512to the top-down 2D view of the second stage 514.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 receives a VC style (i.e., the VCproperty set) that specifies one or more parameters that define theframing behavior of the virtual camera. For instance, in someembodiments, the VC property set specifies that the virtual camera hasto operate in framing mode from a top-down 2D view to frame the puck,the incident location along the current route, and the section of thenew route that provides a detour around the incident location. While thevirtual camera 565 frames these points in a top-down 2D view in theexample of FIGS. 5A and 5B, the virtual camera in other embodimentsframes these points from a high 3D perspective view and the supplied VCproperty set specifies this perspective view. In either the 2D or 3Dview, the puck in some embodiments can appear to move and/or rotateindependently of the map as the virtual camera frames the desiredcollection of points and hence is not strictly tied to the rotationand/or movement of the puck.

As shown, the navigation application presents with the second scene 504a prompt 580 below the presentation, which identifies the identified newroute 584 and provides a set of controls 586 to cancel or accept thisnew route. The new route 584 is displayed differently (e.g., has adifferent appearance, such as a different color, a different type orpattern of line, or is shown with a highlight, etc.) than the currentroute 555. In some embodiments, the navigation application automaticallyswitches to the new route 584 when the user does not select the canceloption (to cancel this new route) within a particular time period. Inother embodiments, the navigation application requires the user toaffirmatively select the new route before switching to it (e.g., removesthe presentation of the new route when the user does not affirmativelyselect the new route within a certain duration of time).

As shown in FIG. 5B, the third scene 506 is a scene in the navigationpresentation after this presentation has switched from the first route555 to the new route 584. The navigation application in some embodimentsautomatically switches to this new route without user input when theuser does not select the cancel option 586. To show this switch, thevirtual camera 565 stays in its top-down position for a period of time,as shown by the third stage 516.

However, after a time duration following the switch to the new route584, the virtual camera 565 switches back to its 3D perspective view, asshown by the fourth stage 518. As shown in this stage 518, the virtualcamera 565 moves to a 3D perspective position behind the puck to producea 3D perspective view of the route and the puck. In switching back to aperspective 3D position, the virtual camera switches from operating inits framing mode back to operating in its tracking mode. The fourthscene 508 provides a 3D perspective view of the puck 550, the new route584 and the map.

In some embodiments, the navigation application might not be able toidentify a new route that avoids a traffic incident along the device'scurrent route. In some such embodiments, the navigation applicationstill changes the virtual camera's pitch, origin offset and/or angularrotation to show the puck and the incident location in either a top-down2D view or a perspective 3D view. To show the incident location, thevirtual camera switches from its tracking mode to its framing mode sothat it can frame the location of the puck and the incident location fora period of time. In some embodiments, the virtual camera returns to itsposition behind the puck after showing the incident location for aperiod of time.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 does not change the virtualcamera's style to capture an incident along the current route, when thepuck is near a junction along the current route at which the puck has toperform a maneuver (e.g., make a turn, etc.). In these embodiments, theVC engine 120 waits until the puck finishes the nearby maneuver at thenearby route juncture, before switching to a new VC style (i.e., beforeadjusting the virtual camera's properties based on the new VC stylereceived from the style engine 115).

The type of road being navigated is another type of context that mayaffect how the VC engine operates the virtual camera. For instance, onwindy roads or on highways/freeways, the VC engine in some embodimentsrepeatedly selects successive upcoming points on the route ahead of thepuck for the virtual camera to frame along with the puck and theintervening points along the route. In some embodiments, the VC engineselects the upcoming points to be farther along the route when theposted speed limit for the road type is faster (e.g., the upcomingpoints are 2 miles from the puck on freeway, 1 mile from the puck onhighway, and 0.5 miles on windy roads).

Also, in some embodiments, the upcoming point for each navigation sceneis used to define the virtual camera's orientation (e.g., the VC enginedirects, or tries to direct, the virtual camera in some embodiments topoint to the upcoming point). Because the upcoming points are used forframing a collection of points and/or for identifying the virtual cameraorientation, the curvature in the road ahead can cause the virtualcamera and the puck to rotate independently of each other. Specifically,by using the upcoming locations along the route for orienting the cameraand/or for framing, the VC engine in some embodiments can allow the puckto rotate independently of the map while this engine operates thevirtual camera in the framing mode for certain road types. For instance,in some of these embodiments, when these upcoming locations fall withina first, inner angular range of the puck's orientation, the VC enginerotates the camera with the puck. However, when these upcoming locationsfall within of a second, outer angular range of the puck's orientation,the VC engine of some embodiments maintains the virtual camera pointedon the upcoming locations, which allows the puck to rotate independentlyof the map as it travels along the route.

FIG. 6 presents an example that illustrates how the navigationapplication of some embodiments uses upcoming locations on a freeway toframe a collection of points on the route ahead of the puck. In thisexample, the puck is traveling on a freeway and the upcoming locationsare picked to be far off locations (e.g., 2 miles ahead) becausepresumably the puck will reach these locations sooner due to the fasterspeed limit posted for the freeway. On highways and slower windy roads,the VC engine uses upcoming locations that are closer to the puck due tothe puck's expected slower speed of travel.

Also, the VC engine has the virtual camera operate at higher zoom levelsas the posted speed limit becomes larger. For instance, when travelingon a freeway, the virtual camera zooms out to 1.5 miles in someembodiments, while operating at lower zoom levels for highways, and evenlower ones for urban streets or rural roads. The higher zoom levels onthe faster roads are meant to show more of the upcoming route, andincidents (e.g., traffic) and context, along the upcoming routes, whichshould be reached sooner based on the expected faster travel speeds onthese roads.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 receives a VC style (i.e., theset of VC properties) that specifies several framing parameters fordirecting the VC engine on how to have the virtual camera frame the puckand the upcoming route as the puck travels along the freeway. Examplesof such framing parameters include the 3D perspective view (e.g., a viewwith a particular pitch) of the virtual camera, the size of the puck'sbounding box, the distance ahead on the route that the virtual camerashould frame, and/or an ideal zoom level (e.g., 1.5 miles above thefreeway). In some embodiments, the received VC style does not specifysome of these parameters, and/or specifies other framing parameters.

The example illustrated in FIG. 6 is presented in three navigationscenes 602-606 of the navigation presentation. The first scene 602 isone of the early scenes after the navigation presentation has started orafter the puck 650 has gotten on the freeway. This scene shows the puck650 navigating along a route 655 in a 3D map scene 660. This scene 602is generated based on a field of view of the virtual camera (not shown)from the perspective 3D position.

On freeways, the VC engine of some embodiments operates the virtualcamera in a 3D perspective view from a high zoom level. Thus, afterstarting the navigation presentation in a low 3D perspective view, suchas the first scene 602, the navigation presentation animates through aseries of scenes until the camera starts to define scenes that arecaptured from high 3D perspective views. The second scene 604 is onesuch high 3D perspective view. This scene is generated by the VC engine120 directing the virtual camera to frame (1) the puck, (2) an upcominglocation 625 on the navigated freeway that is 2 miles from the locationof the puck, and (3) intervening locations on the route between the puckand the upcoming location 625. The VC engine 120 also uses the positionof the upcoming location to identify the orientation of the virtualcamera (e.g., directs the camera to point to this location while framingthe desired collection of points).

Framing the upcoming location 625 and the intervening points allows thevirtual camera to show the bend 630 in the freeway between puck and theupcoming location 625. Also, by using the upcoming location 625 todirect the virtual camera, the navigation application can maintain theupcoming location at or near the center of the frame (i.e., at or nearthe midpoint of the top side of the frame) in order to show thislocation in the field of focus of the display screen. This manner oforienting the camera allows the puck to point in a different directionthan the camera, which allows the puck to appear to rotate on top of themap (i.e., to rotate independently of the map) during the navigationpresentation. The second scene 604 shows the puck pointing to thetop-right quadrant of the map, instead of straight up direction, whichis the direction that pucks are usually directed in the navigationpresentations of other applications.

The third scene 606 is another scene in the navigation presentation.This scene is generated by the VC engine 120 directing the virtualcamera to frame (1) the puck, (2) another upcoming location 635 on thenavigated freeway that is 2 miles from another location of the puck, and(3) intervening locations on the route between the puck and the upcominglocation 635. As the VC engine 120 now uses this location 635 to directthe virtual camera, the scene 606 shows another bend 640 in the freewaybetween puck and the upcoming location 635, and shows the puck pointingin a different direction, now pointing to the top-left quadrant of themap. While the puck travels between the different bends 630 and 640 inthe freeway, the navigation application provides an animation in someembodiments that shows the puck rotating on the map between variousdifferent angular orientations including the two shown in the second andthird scenes 604 and 606.

Some embodiments put some constraints on how much the puck can rotate onthe map while it travels on windy roads (e.g., windy highways.). FIG. 7illustrates some of these constraints. This figure shows that, in someof these embodiments, when an upcoming location 750 along a route 755falls within a first, inner angular range 760 of an orientation of apuck 705, the VC engine rotates the camera with the puck (i.e., has thevirtual camera point in the same direction as the puck 705), whichprevents the puck from appearing to rotate. However, when the upcominglocation 770 along a route 775 falls within a second, outer angularrange 780 of the puck's orientation, the VC engine maintains the virtualcamera pointed on the upcoming location, which allows the puck to rotateindependently of the map as it travels along the route. When the pointfalls outside of the second angular range 780, the VC engine in someembodiments rotates the virtual camera towards the puck in order tobring the puck back to alignment with the camera.

In some embodiments, the VC engine uses the angular range approachillustrated in FIG. 7 while the puck travels along a highway or afreeway. In some of these embodiments, the VC engine uses differentranges of angles when the puck travels along a highway than it uses whenthe puck travels along a freeway. For instance, in some embodiments, theVC engine uses smaller ranges of angles while the device travels along ahighway, than when the puck travels along a freeway.

The VC engine 120 in some embodiments operates the virtual camera 125 ina framing mode when the puck is reaching a freeway and/or highway exitthat is used by a maneuver along the navigated route. For instance, insome embodiments, the virtual camera starts to frame the puck and theexit used by a maneuver, as the puck is within a threshold distance ofthe exit. As the puck gets closer to this exit, the virtual camera insome of these embodiments zooms in to try to maintain the puck and exitwithin the same relative region of interest on the display screen. Insome embodiments, the virtual camera performs this framing operationfrom a perspective 3D point of view (e.g., a high zoom 3D point ofview), while in other embodiments, the virtual camera performs thisframing operation from a top-down 2D point of view.

FIG. 8 presents an example that illustrates the framing of a freewayexit 815 at which a puck 805 has to make a maneuver to exit a freeway822 that is on a navigated route 855. This example is presented in sixnavigation scenes 802, 804, 806, 808, 810, and 812 of the navigationpresentation. The first scene 802 shows the puck traveling on thefreeway 822 from a high perspective 3D view of the camera. The top ofthis scene shows the exit 815 that the puck has to take at a distantlocation that is currently very far from the puck.

The second scene 804 shows that as the puck gets closer to the exit 815,the navigation presentation shows a closer perspective 3D view of themap, the puck 805 and the navigated route 855. This view is generated bylowering the virtual camera's zoom level (i.e., reducing the height ofthe virtual camera) so that the virtual camera can be closer to the map.In some embodiments, the VC engine brings the virtual camera to a lowerzoom level so that it can then have the virtual camera start framing thepuck 805 and the exit 815.

The third, fourth, and fifth scene 806-810 are three navigation scenesthat navigation application renders after the virtual camera starts toframe the puck and the exit. In some embodiments, the virtual cameraframes the puck and several locations on the exit ramp ahead of thepuck. Each exit in some embodiments has a set of points that define aramp or road segment(s) associated with the exit. In some embodiments,the virtual camera includes the exit's associated set of points in thecollection of points that it uses to define frames for a puck exiting ahighway or freeway. In the example of FIG. 8, the exit ramp is used todefine the topside of several frames defined during this framingoperation. During this framing operation, the puck's origin and angularorientation can differ than those of the virtual camera. As such, thepuck can appear to rotate on the map and to move up or down on thescreen, as shown in the third, fourth, and fifth scene 806-810.

The sixth scene 812 shows the navigation presentation after the puck hasgotten off the exit's ramp and has reached an urban street that leads tothe route's destination. In this scene, the virtual camera has moved toa lower perspective 3D view. Also, at this stage, the virtual camera hasswitched from operating in its framing mode to operating in its trackingmode. In this tracking mode, the virtual camera maintains its originoffset (e.g., zero offset) with the puck's origin and aligns its angularorientation with that of the puck, until the puck gets closer to thedestination.

At times, one exit has multiple ramps that connect to different streetsor to different directions of travel along the same street. In suchsituations, the navigation application of some embodiments displays theramp that is used by the route maneuver differently than the othernearby ramps. To help differentiate this ramp from the other nearbyramps, the VC engine of some embodiments has the virtual camera framethis ramp along with the puck and one or more of the other nearby ramps.This framing allows the user to clearly view the ramp that needs to beused in the context of other nearby ramps. The VC engine in someembodiments has the virtual camera frame the relevant ramp along with amaximum number N (e.g., 2) of other nearby ramps.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 receives a VC style (i.e., theset of VC properties) that specifies several framing parameters fordirecting the VC engine on how to have the virtual camera frame the puckas it travels along an exit freeway ramp. Examples of such framingparameters include the 3D perspective view (e.g., a view with aparticular pitch) of the virtual camera, the size of the puck's boundingbox, and/or a specification that upcoming locations along the exit ramphave to be framed. In some embodiments, the received VC style does notspecify some of these parameters, and/or specifies other framingparameters.

FIG. 9 presents an example that illustrates the framing of several rampsassociated with one freeway exit that has one ramp that a puck 905 hasto use to exit a navigated freeway. This example is presented byreference to three navigation scenes 902, 904, and 906 of the navigationpresentation. The first scene 902 shows the puck traveling on thefreeway 922 from a high perspective 3D view of the camera. The top ofthis scene shows the exit 915 that the puck has to take at a distantlocation that is currently very far from the puck.

The second scene 904 shows that as the puck gets closer to the exit 915,the navigation presentation shows a closer perspective 3D view of themap, the puck 905 and the navigated route 955. This view is generated bylowering the virtual camera's zoom level so that the virtual camera canbe closer to the map. In some embodiments, the VC engine lowers thevirtual camera's height so that it can then have the virtual camerastart framing the puck 905 and the exit 915.

The second scene 904 also starts to show that the exit 915 has multipleramps 932, 934, and 936 that connect to multiple different streets nearthe exit. To more clearly show the exit ramp 934 that the puck has touse to perform its maneuver, and to more clearly differentiate this rampfrom other nearby ramps, the VC engine has the virtual camera move to acloser 3D perspective view of the ramps 932-936 and frame the puck alongwith several locations along these ramps, as shown in the third scene906. In some embodiments, the ramp locations that are used for theframing are all of the locations along the ramp, or a subset oflocations on the ramp that are predefined or are on-the-fly generated bythe VC engine. In some embodiments, VC engine has the virtual cameraframe the ramps 932-936 from a top-down 2D view instead of the 3Dperspective view shown in the third scene 906.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, the ramp 934 is differentiatedfrom the other two ramps 932 and 936 just by virtue of showing the route955 using this ramp 934. Other embodiments further differentiate thisramp from the other ramps by highlighting or changing the color of thisramp 934 from that of the other two ramps 932 and 936, or through someother mechanism. As the puck performs its maneuver along the ramp 934and reaches the end of this ramp, the VC engine in this example directsthe virtual camera to switch from operating in its framing mode tooperating in its tracking mode, so that it can track the puck as ittravels along the urban street network to reach its destination. Whilethe puck navigates the urban street network, the VC engine can switch tooperate the virtual camera in its framing mode when the navigationcontext changes and this change necessitates operating the camera inthis mode.

The VC engine of some embodiments has the virtual camera frame a groupof upcoming maneuvers along the navigated route when these maneuversmeet a set of grouping criteria. Based on the grouping criteria, themethod of some embodiments dynamically identifies groups of upcomingmaneuvers for the navigation presentation (e.g., the method does notrequire these maneuvers to be statically grouped before the navigatedroute is identified). By framing the group of upcoming maneuvers, thevirtual camera can produce a navigation presentation that displaysseveral upcoming maneuvers that are near each other, in order tohighlight one or more maneuvers that follow the next maneuver in theroute. For this framing, the puck can appear at offset locations androtate independently of the map (i.e., of the virtual camera). In someembodiments, the set of ramps associated with an exit (such as ramps932-936) are treated as a grouped set of maneuvers.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 receives a VC style (i.e., theset of VC properties) that specifies several framing parameters fordirecting the VC engine on how to have the virtual camera frame the puckas it reaches a freeway exit with multiple grouped ramps. Examples ofsuch framing parameters include the 3D perspective view (e.g., a viewwith a particular pitch) of the virtual camera, the size of the puck'sbounding box, and/or the maximum number of grouped ramps to frame. Insome embodiments, the received VC style does not specify some of theseparameters, and/or specifies other framing parameters.

Different embodiments use different criteria for grouping maneuvers. Insome embodiments, the grouping criteria relates to the categoryassociated with the maneuver and to the distance between the maneuverand other nearby adjacent maneuvers. Two categories of maneuvers thatare used to group maneuvers in some embodiments are (1) whether themaneuver is part of a set of maneuvers associated with a roundabout, and(2) whether the maneuver is along an exit ramp. When a particularmaneuver is part of a group of maneuvers and the particular maneuver hasto be framed, the VC engine has the virtual camera frame the entiregroup of maneuvers. Also, a large number of maneuvers might belong toone group. Framing a large group of maneuvers might provide too muchdetail to the user and thereby confuse the user. Hence, some embodimentslimit the number of maneuvers that are framed in any one group (e.g.,have the virtual camera frame at most five maneuvers in a group).

FIG. 10 presents one example that illustrates the grouping of upcomingmaneuvers and the framing of the maneuvers in a group. This exampleillustrates several maneuvers that are grouped because of their closeproximity to each other. In this example, a puck 1005 travels along aroute 1055 that uses several city streets. This example is presented insix navigation scenes 1002, 1004, 1006, 1008, 1010, and 1012 of thenavigation presentation.

The first scene 1002 shows the puck 1005 traveling on the road from alow perspective 3D view of the virtual camera while this camera isoperating in the tracking mode. The top of this scene shows a right turnthat the puck has to make at a distant location. Three other maneuversare near this right turn. Thus, as the puck gets closer to the rightturn at the end of the road, the VC engine switches from operating thevirtual camera in its tracking mode to operating it in its framing modeso that it can frame the group of upcoming maneuvers.

To group these maneuvers, the VC engine 120 first moves the virtualcamera to a higher zoom level so that it can have an unobstructed viewof the maneuvers in the group. The second scene 1004 shows the groupedupcoming maneuvers from such higher zoom level. As shown in this scene,the grouped maneuvers in this example include a first right turn 1072,followed by a first left turn 1074, followed by a second right turn1076, and then a second left turn 1078. In this example, the groupedmaneuvers are shown from top-down 2D view of the virtual camera. Inother embodiments, the VC engine directs the virtual camera to show thisgrouped set of maneuvers (and other grouped maneuvers) from aperspective 3D position.

The third and fourth scenes 1006 and 1008 are two navigation scenes thatnavigation application renders after the virtual camera starts to framethe puck and the grouped maneuvers 1074-1078 (not the maneuver 1072 asthe puck has moved past this maneuver). To perform this framing, the VCengine uses the locations of the maneuvers 1074-1078 along with the puckto define the boundaries of the frame. Also, in some embodiments, the VCengine 120 directs the virtual camera to point towards the last maneuver1078 in the group of maneuvers while it is framing the puck and thegroup of maneuvers. During this framing operation, the puck's origin andangular orientation can differ from those of the virtual camera. Assuch, the puck can appear to rotate on the map and to move up or down onthe screen. The rotation of the puck on the map is shown in the thirdand fourth scene 1006 and 1008.

As the puck passes each maneuver in the group, the VC engine removes themaneuver from the group of maneuvers that the virtual camera has toframe either immediately or a threshold distance after the puck movespast the maneuver. As such, the virtual camera's framing of the group ofmaneuvers often changes as the puck passes each maneuver in the group.This is most clearly illustrated in the change between the fourth andfifth scenes 1008 and 1010. While the fourth scene 1008 shows thegrouped maneuvers 1074-1078 being framed along with the puck, the fifthscene 1010 shows the grouped maneuvers 1076 and 1078 being framed withthe puck. In the fifth scene 1010, the virtual camera operates at alower zoom level to show more of the maneuvers 1076 and 1078 in theframes that it defies. Also, in the fifth scene 1010, the virtualcamera's angular orientation happens to be aligned with the puck but itsorigin is offset from that of the virtual camera so that it can providea full view of both upcoming grouped maneuvers 1076 and 1078.

The sixth scene 1012 shows the navigation presentation after the puckhas moved past the last grouped maneuver 1078. In this scene, thevirtual camera has moved to a lower perspective 3D view. Also, at thisstage, the virtual camera has switched from operating in its framingmode to operating in its tracking mode. In this tracking mode, thevirtual camera's maintains its origin offset (e.g., zero offset) withthe puck's origin and aligns its angular orientation with that of thepuck, until the puck gets closer to the destination.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 receives a VC style (i.e., theset of VC properties) that specifies several framing parameters fordirecting the VC engine on how to have the virtual camera frame the puckand a group of upcoming maneuvers. Examples of such framing parametersinclude the 2D top-down view of the virtual camera, the size of thepuck's bounding box, the orientation of the virtual camera toward thelast maneuver in the group, and/or the maximum number of maneuvers inthe group to frame at any one time. In some embodiments, the received VCstyle does not specify some of these parameters, and/or specifies otherframing parameters. Also, in some embodiments, the VC engine receivesthe identity of each group of maneuvers and their associated locationsfrom the navigation module 105.

FIG. 11 presents another example that illustrates the grouping ofupcoming maneuvers and the framing of the maneuvers in a group. Thisexample illustrates two set of grouped maneuvers. The first set ofgrouped maneuvers includes maneuvers that are associated with aroundabout, while the second set of grouped maneuvers includes maneuversthat are grouped because of their close proximity to each other. In thisexample, a puck 1105 travels along a route 1155 that uses several citystreets. This example is presented in six navigation scenes 1102, 1104,1106, 1108, 1110, and 1112 of the navigation presentation.

The first scene 1102 shows the puck 1105 traveling on the road from alow perspective 3D view of the virtual camera while this camera isoperating in the tracking mode. The top of this scene shows a streetnamed “Division,” which is identified in the navigation banner as astreet on which the puck will have to make a right turn. The secondscene 1104 shows that this right turn puts the puck on a roundabout 1170that connects to multiple streets. As the puck gets closer to the rightturn at the end of the road 1122, the VC engine switches from operatingthe virtual camera in its tracking mode to operating it in its framingmode so that it can frame the roundabout 1170.

To group this roundabout, the VC engine 120 first moves the virtualcamera to a higher zoom level so that it can have an unobstructed viewof roundabout. The second scene 1104 shows the roundabout from suchhigher zoom level. The third scene 1106 shows this roundabout from alower zoom level that the virtual camera reaches so that it can start toframe the puck and roundabout in such a way that they fit the desiredregion of interest on the display screen. As shown in the second andthird scenes 1104 and 1106, the roundabout 1170 in this includes an exit1172 that the puck needs to make to get off this roundabout. Theroundabout 1170 also is defined by reference to a set of locations thatVC engine has the virtual camera frame along with the puck. Theselocations are locations on the roundabout ahead of the puck. In thisexample, the virtual camera frames this roundabout 1170 from a top-down2D position. In other embodiments, the VC engine directs the virtualcamera to show this roundabout from perspective 3D position.

The fourth and fifth scenes 1108 and 1110 are two navigation scenes thatnavigation application renders after the virtual camera starts to framethe puck and the roundabout 1170. In these scenes, the puck has reachedthe roundabout and going around to reach the exit 1172. In someembodiments, the VC engine 120 has the virtual camera point towards thetop of the roundabout from the perspective of the road 1122 that thepuck navigated to reach the roundabout. This framing approach does notchange as the puck maneuvers on the roundabout past streets that it doesnot use. As such, this framing of the roundabout shows the puck movingalong the roundabout and rotating as it moves. The rotation of the puckon the map is shown in the fourth and fifth scene 1108 and 1110.

Once the puck passes the roundabout exit 1172 and gets on the street1124, the VC engine no longer has the virtual camera frame theroundabout 1172 as it is now behind the puck. Typically, the VC enginewould have the virtual camera resume its tracking behavior, but in thisexample, a short distance after the puck gets on street 1124, the puckwill reach a set of maneuvers that are near each other and hence havebeen grouped. As such, the VC engine 120 has the virtual camera go fromframing the roundabout 1170 to the grouped set of maneuvers 1178, asshown in the sixth scene 1112.

In some embodiments, the navigation application dynamically defines theset or sets of maneuvers to group in a route. FIG. 12 illustrates aprocess that the navigation module 105 performs in some embodiments todynamically identify group or groups of maneuvers for a route. Thisprocess is dynamic because whenever the route changes, the navigationmodule 105 re-performs this process to determine whether it contains twoor more maneuvers that should be grouped together. Any new groups itidentifies might overlap with the groups identified for a prior route ormight be completely different from these previously identified groups.

To dynamically group the maneuvers, the navigation module 105 accountsfor the order of the maneuvers, their distance from each other, andtheir type. The navigation module in some embodiments (1) sorts themaneuvers according to their order in the route, (2) assigns a score of1 to each maneuver that satisfies at least one grouping criterion and ascore of 0 to each maneuver that does not satisfy any groupingcriterion, and (3) steps backwards through the maneuvers to generate amaneuver count for each particular maneuver by adding the maneuver countof the previous maneuver in the backward traversal (i.e., the count ofthe next maneuver in the route) to the particular maneuver's count solong as the particular maneuver is within a threshold distance of theprevious maneuver in the backward traversal.

As shown, the process 1200 starts (at 1205) by identifying a sequence ofmaneuvers along the route, as well as the location and type of eachidentified maneuver. In some embodiments, the process 1200 identifiesthe maneuver sequence and the maneuver locations and types based on theroute definition that it receives from a route-identifying module of thenavigation application. The route-identifying module obtains some or allof this information from a remote set of servers in some embodiments.

Next, at 1210, the process creates a table that lists each maneuveralong one dimension and each grouping criterion along another dimension.FIG. 13 illustrates one example of such a table 1300. In this table, themaneuvers are listed along the table's columns, while the groupingcriteria are listed along the table's rows. Also, in this example, theroute has eight maneuvers M1-M8, and the process uses three groupingcriteria, two of which are based on the maneuver type and one is basedon a distance threshold. Specifically, the first grouping criterion iswhether the maneuver is associated with a roundabout, the secondgrouping criterion is whether the maneuver is associated with an exitramp, and the third grouping criterion is whether the maneuver is withina first threshold distance (e.g., 100 meters) of at least one othermaneuver in the route. Other embodiments use other sets of groupingcriteria, e.g., might use other criteria in addition to the threementioned above or might not use some or all of the three mentionedabove.

After creating the table, the process 1200 assigns (at 1215) (1) agrouping value of 1 in each maneuver's cell for each grouping criterionwhen that maneuver satisfies the grouping criterion, and (2) a groupingvalue of 0 in each maneuver's cell for each grouping criterion when thatmaneuver does not satisfy the grouping criterion. In FIG. 13, the thirdand fourth maneuvers M3 and M4 are designated by a value of 1 as beingassociated with roundabouts, the third through fifth maneuvers M3-M5 aredesignated by a value of 1 as being associated with a ramp, and thefirst and second maneuvers M1 and M2 are specified by a value of 1 asbeing within a first threshold distance of another maneuver. All othercells in the first three non-header rows are assigned a value of 0 aseach such cell's associated maneuver does not satisfy the cell'sassociated grouping criterion.

Next, at 1220, the process computes a grouping score of 1 or 0 for eachmaneuver, by assigning (1) a grouping score of 1 to the maneuver whenthe maneuver has at least one grouping value of 1, and (2) a groupingscore of 0 to the maneuver when the maneuver has no grouping value of 1.Essentially, for each maneuver, this operation OR's the grouping valuesof the maneuver to produce the grouping score for the maneuver. FIG. 13shows that the operation 1220 for the maneuvers in this examplegenerates a grouping score of 1 for the first five maneuvers M1-M5, anda grouping score of 0 for the last three maneuvers M6-M8.

At 1225, the process 1200 in some embodiments generates an initialmaneuver count for each maneuver by setting this count equal tomaneuver's grouping score. The process also selects (at 1225) the lastmaneuver in the route as the current maneuver, so that it can start itsbackwards traversal through the route in order to compute an upcomingmaneuver count for each maneuver. In FIG. 13, this maneuver is maneuverM8. Next, at 1230, the process determines whether the selected maneuverhas a grouping score of 1 (i.e., whether it is associated with at leastone grouping criterion). If not, the process transitions to 1245, whichwill be described below.

Otherwise, the process determines (at 1235) whether the selectedmaneuver is within a second threshold distance (e.g., 500 meters) of thenext maneuver in the route, which was the previous maneuver that theprocess 1200 examined in its backward traversal through the route. Thissecond threshold value is meant to allow the virtual camera to continueoperating in its framing mode when going from framing one group ofmaneuvers to framing another group of maneuvers, as described above byreference to FIG. 11. For the first examined maneuver (which is the lastmaneuver in the route), this answer is obviously no as there are nosubsequent maneuvers in the route.

When the process determines (at 1235) that the selected maneuver is notwithin the second threshold distance of the next maneuver on the route,the process transitions to 1245, which will be described below.Otherwise, when the selected maneuver is within the second thresholddistance of next maneuver on the route, the process computes (at 1240)an upcoming maneuver count of the selected maneuver as 1 plus themaneuver count of the next maneuver on the route (i.e., 1 plus themaneuver count of the maneuver that the process selected previously at1225 or 1250). After 1240, the process transitions to 1245.

At 1245, the process determines whether it has examined all themaneuvers in its backward traversal through the maneuvers in the route.If so, it ends. Otherwise, the process selects (at 1250) the nextmaneuver in its backward traversal (i.e., selects the maneuver that, inthe route, is before the currently selected maneuver). For instance,after computing the maneuver count for the fifth maneuver in the routeby performing a subset of the operations 1230-1245, the process 1200selects the fourth maneuver in the route so that it can perform a subsetof the operations 1230-1245 to compute its maneuver count based on thecount of the fifth maneuver.

FIG. 13 shows the computed maneuver counts in its last row. In thisexample, each of the first four maneuvers M1-M4 is assumed to be withinthe second distance threshold of the next maneuver in the route. FIG. 14shows an identical example to that of FIG. 13, except that in theexample of FIG. 14, the second maneuver M2 is not within the secondthreshold distance of the third maneuver M3. Because of this, themaneuver count of the second maneuver M2 remains at 1 (i.e., is notincremented by maneuver count of the third maneuver M3). As such, themaneuver counts of the first and second maneuvers M1 and M2 in FIG. 14end up being different than the counts for these maneuvers in FIG. 13.

As described above, the virtual camera and the puck not only can behorizontally offset from each other, but also can be vertically offsetfrom each other in some embodiments. This vertical offset can make thepuck move up or down the screen during the navigation presentation(i.e., can make the puck be at different vertical positions on thescreen at different instances in the navigation presentation). Havingthe puck move up the screen is useful when the puck has to make aU-turn, because this would allow the virtual camera to capture more ofthe route after the turn. For U-turns, the VC engine in some embodimentsnot only allows the puck to move up the screen, but also require thepuck to be at the top of the frame captured by the virtual camera, asopposed to other framing operations that just require the puck to be oneof the points within the frame.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a puck 1500 approaching a U-turn insome embodiments. This example is illustrated in three scenes 1502-1506.The first scene 1502 shows the puck from a vantage point of a virtualcamera that operates in a 3D perspective view. When the puck is within athreshold distance of the location of the U-turn, the VC engine 120 hasthe virtual camera start to frame the puck and the location of theU-turn so that the captured view not only shows the portion 1550 of theroad ahead to the location of the U-turn, but also shows the portion1555 of the road after the U-turn. In some embodiments, the VC enginehas the virtual camera perform this framing from a top-down 2D view, asshown in the second and third stages 1504 and 1506. This framing in someembodiments causes the virtual camera to define a sequence of navigationscenes in which the map does not move vertically or does not have muchvertical movement, while the puck moves vertically towards the locationof the U-turn. In some embodiments, this framing positions the locationof the U-turn at the center of the navigation presentation's displayarea, or near this center. Some of these embodiments then show the puckmoving towards this central location, before starting to make itsU-turn.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 receives a VC style (i.e., theset of VC properties) that specifies several framing parameters fordirecting the VC engine on how to have the virtual camera frame the puckas it reaches a U-turn. Examples of such framing parameters include the2D top-down view of the virtual camera, the size of the puck's boundingbox, the requirement that the puck is placed at the top of the puck'sbounding box, and/or the amount of the route after the U-turn forframing. In some embodiments, the received VC style does not specifysome of these parameters, and/or specifies other framing parameters.

The VC engine 120 also has the virtual camera operate in a framing modewhen the puck passes an arrival point for a route, or is trying to geton a departure point for the route. FIG. 16 illustrates an example offraming a puck 1600 and an arrival point 1605 after the puck passes thearrival point. This example is illustrated in four scenes 1602-1608. Thefirst scene 1602 shows the puck from a vantage point of a virtual camerathat operates in a 3D perspective view. In this scene, the puck has notyet reached the arrival point.

The second, third, and fourth scenes 1604-1608 show the puck after ithas passed the arrival point. Each of these scenes 1604, 1606 and 1608shows the puck after one right turn as it circles back to the arrivalpoint. Each of these scenes 1604-1608 are displayed from a top-down 2Dview. In other embodiments, these scenes would be displayed as a pitchperspective view. Also, in the second, third, and fourth scenes1604-1608, the virtual camera frames the puck and the arrival point andpositions this frame within the field of focus on the display screen.

In this framing, the puck is maintained at the center of the displayarea, or near this center, as the map moves about the puck. The puckhowever does rotate to provide an indication for its turning. Thisframing is highly useful when a user is having a hard time finding thearrival point, as it keeps the puck and the arrival point in thepresentation's field of focus while the puck moves around to reach thispoint. In addition to framing the puck and the arrival point, the VCengine has the virtual camera also frame a nearby point-of-interest (aPOI, like a building) when such a POI is available.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 receives a VC style (i.e., theset of VC properties) that specifies several framing parameters fordirecting the VC engine on how to have the virtual camera frame the puckwhen it passes the arrival point. Examples of such framing parametersinclude the 2D top-down view of the virtual camera, the placement of thepuck at the center of the screen, and/or the specification of thearrival point, and a nearby POI if any, as locations to frame along withthe puck. In some embodiments, the received VC style does not specifysome of these parameters, and/or specifies other framing parameters.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of framing a puck and a departure pointbefore a puck 1730 gets on a displayed route 1725 to commence navigatingto a destination. This example is illustrated in four scenes 1702-1708.The first, second, and third scenes 1702-1706 show the puck circlingabout a parking lot trying to reach a departure point 1720 to get on theroute 1725. In some embodiments, the departure point 1720 corresponds toan actual location for the device to get on the route, while in otherembodiments, this point is just a point on the displayed route as theexact location for exiting the parking lot is not known.

Each of the first, second and third scenes 1702, 1704 and 1706 shows thepuck at a different location and orientation in the parking lot from atop-down 2D view. In some embodiments, these scenes would be 3D scenescaptured by a perspective pitch position of the virtual camera. Also, inthe first, second, and third scenes 1702-1706, the virtual camera framesthe puck and the departure point and positions this frame at a desiredregion of interest on the display screen. In addition, the puck in thisframing is maintained at the center of the display area, or near thiscenter, as the map moves about the puck. The puck, however, does rotateto provide an indication for its turning. This framing is highly usefulwhen a user is having a hard time finding the departure point, as itkeeps puck and a representation of the route in the presentation's fieldof focus while the puck moves around to reach the route. The fourthscene 1708 shows the puck after it has gotten on the route 1725. As thepuck is traveling on the route in an urban area, the virtual cameracaptures this scene from a 3D perspective view.

In addition to framing the puck 1730 and the departure point 1720, thefirst, second and third scenes 1702-1706 in some embodiments alsoinclude the location of a nearby point-of-interest (a POI, like aparking structure or building) when such a POI is available. Framingsuch additional POI along with the puck and the departure point furtherhelps the user orient the puck 1730 towards the departure point 1720.

In some embodiments, the VC engine 120 receives a VC style (i.e., theset of VC properties) that specifies several framing parameters fordirecting the VC engine on how to have the virtual camera frame the puckbefore the puck has reached the departure point to start on thenavigated route. Examples of such framing parameters include the 2Dtop-down view of the virtual camera, the placement of the puck at thecenter of the screen, and/or the specification of the departure point,and any relevant nearby POI, as locations to frame along with the puck.In some embodiments, the received VC style does not specify some ofthese parameters, and/or specifies other framing parameters.

Many of the above-described features and applications are implemented assoftware processes that are specified as a set of instructions recordedon a computer readable storage medium (also referred to as computerreadable medium). When these instructions are executed by one or morecomputational or processing unit(s) (e.g., one or more processors, coresof processors, or other processing units), they cause the processingunit(s) to perform the actions indicated in the instructions. Examplesof computer readable media include, but are not limited to, CD-ROMs,flash drives, random access memory (RAM) chips, hard drives, erasableprogrammable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memories (EEPROMs), etc. The computer readablemedia does not include carrier waves and electronic signals passingwirelessly or over wired connections.

In this specification, the term “software” is meant to include firmwareresiding in read-only memory or applications stored in magnetic storagewhich can be read into memory for processing by a processor. Also, insome embodiments, multiple software inventions can be implemented assub-parts of a larger program while remaining distinct softwareinventions. In some embodiments, multiple software inventions can alsobe implemented as separate programs. Finally, any combination ofseparate programs that together implement a software invention describedhere is within the scope of the invention. In some embodiments, thesoftware programs, when installed to operate on one or more electronicsystems, define one or more specific machine implementations thatexecute and perform the operations of the software programs.

The applications of some embodiments operate on mobile devices, such assmart phones (e.g., iPhones®) and tablets (e.g., iPads®). FIG. 18 is anexample of an architecture 1800 of such a mobile computing device.Examples of mobile computing devices include smartphones, tablets,laptops, etc. As shown, the mobile computing device 1800 includes one ormore processing units 1805, a memory interface 1810 and a peripheralsinterface 1815.

The peripherals interface 1815 is coupled to various sensors andsubsystems, including a camera subsystem 1820, a wireless communicationsubsystem(s) 1825, an audio subsystem 1830, an I/O subsystem 1835, etc.The peripherals interface 1815 enables communication between theprocessing units 1805 and various peripherals. For example, anorientation sensor 1845 (e.g., a gyroscope) and an acceleration sensor1850 (e.g., an accelerometer) is coupled to the peripherals interface1815 to facilitate orientation and acceleration functions.

The camera subsystem 1820 is coupled to one or more optical sensors 1840(e.g., a charged coupled device (CCD) optical sensor, a complementarymetal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) optical sensor, etc.). The camerasubsystem 1820 coupled with the optical sensors 1840 facilitates camerafunctions, such as image and/or video data capturing. The wirelesscommunication subsystem 1825 serves to facilitate communicationfunctions. In some embodiments, the wireless communication subsystem1825 includes radio frequency receivers and transmitters, and opticalreceivers and transmitters (not shown in FIG. 18). These receivers andtransmitters of some embodiments are implemented to operate over one ormore communication networks such as a GSM network, a Wi-Fi network, aBluetooth network, etc. The audio subsystem 1830 is coupled to a speakerto output audio (e.g., to output voice navigation instructions).Additionally, the audio subsystem 1830 is coupled to a microphone tofacilitate voice-enabled functions, such as voice recognition (e.g., forsearching), digital recording, etc.

The I/O subsystem 1835 involves the transfer between input/outputperipheral devices, such as a display, a touch screen, etc., and thedata bus of the processing units 1805 through the peripherals interface1815. The I/O subsystem 1835 includes a touch-screen controller 1855 andother input controllers 1860 to facilitate the transfer betweeninput/output peripheral devices and the data bus of the processing units1805. As shown, the touch-screen controller 1855 is coupled to a touchscreen 1865. The touch-screen controller 1855 detects contact andmovement on the touch screen 1865 using any of multiple touchsensitivity technologies. The other input controllers 1860 are coupledto other input/control devices, such as one or more buttons. Someembodiments include a near-touch sensitive screen and a correspondingcontroller that can detect near-touch interactions instead of or inaddition to touch interactions.

The memory interface 1810 is coupled to memory 1870. In someembodiments, the memory 1870 includes volatile memory (e.g., high-speedrandom access memory), non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory), acombination of volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or any other typeof memory. As illustrated in FIG. 18, the memory 1870 stores anoperating system (OS) 1872. The OS 1872 includes instructions forhandling basic system services and for performing hardware dependenttasks.

The memory 1870 also includes communication instructions 1874 tofacilitate communicating with one or more additional devices; graphicaluser interface instructions 1876 to facilitate graphic user interfaceprocessing; image processing instructions 1878 to facilitateimage-related processing and functions; input processing instructions1880 to facilitate input-related (e.g., touch input) processes andfunctions; audio processing instructions 1882 to facilitateaudio-related processes and functions; and camera instructions 1884 tofacilitate camera-related processes and functions. The instructionsdescribed above are merely exemplary and the memory 1870 includesadditional and/or other instructions in some embodiments. For instance,the memory for a smartphone may include phone instructions to facilitatephone-related processes and functions. The above-identified instructionsneed not be implemented as separate software programs or modules.Various functions of the mobile computing device can be implemented inhardware and/or in software, including in one or more signal processingand/or application specific integrated circuits.

While the components illustrated in FIG. 18 are shown as separatecomponents, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that two ormore components may be integrated into one or more integrated circuits.In addition, two or more components may be coupled together by one ormore communication buses or signal lines. Also, while many of thefunctions have been described as being performed by one component, oneof ordinary skill in the art will realize that the functions describedwith respect to FIG. 18 may be split into two or more integratedcircuits.

FIG. 19 conceptually illustrates another example of an electronic system1900 with which some embodiments of the invention are implemented. Theelectronic system 1900 may be a computer (e.g., a desktop computer,personal computer, tablet computer, etc.), phone, PDA, or any other sortof electronic or computing device. Such an electronic system includesvarious types of computer readable media and interfaces for variousother types of computer readable media. Electronic system 1900 includesa bus 1905, processing unit(s) 1910, a graphics processing unit (GPU)1915, a system memory 1920, a network 1925, a read-only memory 1930, apermanent storage device 1935, input devices 1940, and output devices1945.

The bus 1905 collectively represents all system, peripheral, and chipsetbuses that communicatively connect the numerous internal devices of theelectronic system 1900. For instance, the bus 1905 communicativelyconnects the processing unit(s) 1910 with the read-only memory 1930, theGPU 1915, the system memory 1920, and the permanent storage device 1935.

From these various memory units, the processing unit(s) 1910 retrievesinstructions to execute and data to process in order to execute theprocesses of the invention. The processing unit(s) may be a singleprocessor or a multi-core processor in different embodiments. Someinstructions are passed to and executed by the GPU 1915. The GPU 1915can offload various computations or complement the image processingprovided by the processing unit(s) 1910.

The read-only-memory (ROM) 1930 stores static data and instructions thatare needed by the processing unit(s) 1910 and other modules of theelectronic system. The permanent storage device 1935, on the other hand,is a read-and-write memory device. This device is a non-volatile memoryunit that stores instructions and data even when the electronic system1900 is off. Some embodiments of the invention use a mass-storage device(such as a magnetic or optical disk and its corresponding disk drive,integrated flash memory) as the permanent storage device 1935.

Other embodiments use a removable storage device (such as a floppy disk,flash memory device, etc., and its corresponding drive) as the permanentstorage device. Like the permanent storage device 1935, the systemmemory 1920 is a read-and-write memory device. However, unlike storagedevice 1935, the system memory 1920 is a volatile read-and-write memory,such a random access memory. The system memory 1920 stores some of theinstructions and data that the processor needs at runtime. In someembodiments, the invention's processes are stored in the system memory1920, the permanent storage device 1935, and/or the read-only memory1930. For example, the various memory units include instructions forprocessing multimedia clips in accordance with some embodiments. Fromthese various memory units, the processing unit(s) 1910 retrievesinstructions to execute and data to process in order to execute theprocesses of some embodiments.

The bus 1905 also connects to the input and output devices 1940 and1945. The input devices 1940 enable the user to communicate informationand select commands to the electronic system. The input devices 1940include alphanumeric keyboards and pointing devices (also called “cursorcontrol devices”), cameras (e.g., webcams), microphones or similardevices for receiving voice commands, etc. The output devices 1945display images generated by the electronic system or otherwise outputdata. The output devices 1945 include printers and display devices, suchas cathode ray tubes (CRT) or liquid crystal displays (LCD), as well asspeakers or similar audio output devices. Some embodiments includedevices such as a touchscreen that function as both input and outputdevices.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 19, bus 1905 also couples electronic system1900 to a network 1925 through a network adapter (not shown). In thismanner, the computer can be a part of a network of computers (such as alocal area network (“LAN”), a wide area network (“WAN”), or anIntranet), or a network of networks, such as the Internet. Any or allcomponents of electronic system 1900 may be used in conjunction with theinvention.

Some embodiments include electronic components, such as microprocessors,storage and memory that store computer program instructions in amachine-readable or computer-readable medium (alternatively referred toas computer-readable storage media, machine-readable media, ormachine-readable storage media). Some examples of such computer-readablemedia include RAM, ROM, read-only compact discs (CD-ROM), recordablecompact discs (CD-R), rewritable compact discs (CD-RW), read-onlydigital versatile discs (e.g., DVD-ROM, dual-layer DVD-ROM), a varietyof recordable/rewritable DVDs (e.g., DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, etc.),flash memory (e.g., SD cards, mini-SD cards, micro-SD cards, etc.),magnetic and/or solid state hard drives, read-only and recordableBlu-Ray® discs, ultra density optical discs, any other optical ormagnetic media, and floppy disks. The computer-readable media may storea computer program that is executable by at least one processing unitand includes sets of instructions for performing various operations.Examples of computer programs or computer code include machine code,such as is produced by a compiler, and files including higher-level codethat are executed by a computer, an electronic component, or amicroprocessor using an interpreter.

While the above discussion primarily refers to microprocessor ormulti-core processors that execute software, some embodiments areperformed by one or more integrated circuits, such as applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs) or field programmable gate arrays(FPGAs). In some embodiments, such integrated circuits executeinstructions that are stored on the circuit itself. In addition, someembodiments execute software stored in programmable logic devices(PLDs), ROM, or RAM devices.

As used in this specification and any claims of this application, theterms “computer”, “server”, “processor”, and “memory” all refer toelectronic or other technological devices. These terms exclude people orgroups of people. For the purposes of the specification, the termsdisplay or displaying means displaying on an electronic device. As usedin this specification and any claims of this application, the terms“computer readable medium,” “computer readable media,” and “machinereadable medium” are entirely restricted to tangible, physical objectsthat store information in a form that is readable by a computer. Theseterms exclude any wireless signals, wired download signals, and anyother ephemeral signals.

Various embodiments may operate within a map service operatingenvironment. FIG. 20 illustrates one possible embodiment of an operatingenvironment 2000 for a map service (also referred to as a mappingservice) 2030 and client devices 2002 a-2002 c. In some embodiments,devices 2002 a, 2002 b, and 2002 c communicate over one or more wired orwireless networks 2010. For example, wireless network 2010, such as acellular network, can communicate with a wide area network (WAN) 2020,such as the Internet, by use of gateway 2014. A gateway 2014 in someembodiments provides a packet oriented mobile data service, such asGeneral Packet Radio Service (GPRS), or other mobile data serviceallowing wireless networks to transmit data to other networks, such aswide area network 2020. Likewise, access device 2012 (e.g., IEEE 802.11gwireless access device) provides communication access to WAN 2020.

The client devices 2002 a and 2002 b can be any portable electronic orcomputing device capable of communicating with a map service (e.g.,smart phone, tablet, laptop computer, etc.). Device 2002 c can be anynon-portable electronic or computing device capable of communicatingwith a map service (e.g., desktop computer, etc.). These devices may bemultifunction devices capable of various functions (e.g., placing phonecalls, sending electronic messages, producing documents, etc.). Thoughthe devices 2002 a-2002 c are not shown as each accessing the mapservice 2030 via either the wireless network 2010 and gateway 2014 orthe access device 2012, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat the client devices of some embodiments may access the map servicevia multiple different wired and/or wireless protocols.

Devices 2002 a-2002 c can also establish communications by other means.For example, these devices may communicate with other wireless devices(e.g., other devices 2002 b, cell phones, etc.) over the wirelessnetwork 2010 or through access device 2012. Likewise the devices 2002a-2002 c can establish peer-to-peer communications 2040 (e.g., apersonal area network) by use of one or more communication subsystems,such as Bluetooth® communication or similar peer-to-peer protocols.

Devices 2002 a-2002 c may also receive Global Positioning Satellite(GPS) signals from GPS satellites 2060. In addition, in some embodimentsthe map service 2030 and other services 2050 may also receive GPSsignals from GPS satellites 2060.

A map service 2030 may provide map services for one or more clientdevices 2002 a-2002 c in communication with the map service 2030 throughvarious communication methods and protocols. A map service 2030 in someembodiments provides map information (e.g., map tiles used by the clientdevices to generate a two-dimensional or three-dimensional mappresentation) and other map-related data, such as two-dimensional mapimage data (e.g., aerial view of roads utilizing satellite imagery),three-dimensional map image data (e.g., traversable map withthree-dimensional features, such as buildings), route and directioncalculations (e.g., driving route data, ferry route calculations,directions between two points for a pedestrian, etc.), real-timenavigation data (e.g., turn-by-turn visual navigation data in two orthree dimensions), traffic data, location data (e.g., where the clientdevice currently is located), and other geographic data (e.g., wirelessnetwork coverage, weather, traffic information, or nearbypoints-of-interest). In various embodiments, the map service data mayinclude localized labels for different countries or regions. Localizedlabels may be utilized to present map labels (e.g., street names, citynames, points of interest) in different languages on client devices. Theclient devices 2002 a-2002 c may utilize these map services to obtainthe various map service data, then implement various techniques toprocess the data and provide the processed data to various entities(e.g., internal software or hardware modules, display screens of theclient devices, external display screens, or other external systems ordevices.

The map service 2030 of some embodiments provides map services bygenerating and distributing the various types of map service data listedabove, including map information used by the client device to generateand display a map presentation. In some embodiments, the map informationincludes one or more map tiles. The map tiles may include raster imagedata (e.g., bmp, gif, jpg/jpeg/, png, tiff, etc. data) for display as amap presentation. In some embodiments, the map tiles providevector-based map data, with the map presentation data encoded usingvector graphics (e.g., svg or drw data). The map tiles may also includevarious other information pertaining to the map, such as metadata. Someembodiments also encode style data (e.g., used to generate textures)into the map tiles. The client device processes (e.g., renders) thevector and/or raster image data to generate a map presentation fordisplay as a two-dimensional or three-dimensional map presentation. Totransmit the map tiles to a client device 2002 a-2002 c, the map service2030 of some embodiments, performs various optimization techniques toanalyze a map tile before encoding the tile.

In some embodiments, the map tiles are generated by the map service 2030for different possible display resolutions at the client devices 2002a-2002 c. In some embodiments, the higher zoom levels may include moredetail (e.g., more street level information, etc.). On the other hand,map tiles for lower zoom levels may omit certain data (e.g., the streetlevel details would not be used when displaying the entire earth).

To generate the map information (e.g., map tiles), the map service 2030may obtain map service data from internal or external sources. Forexample, satellite imagery used in map image data may be obtained fromexternal services, or internal systems, storage devices, or nodes. Otherexamples may include, but are not limited to, GPS assistance servers,wireless network coverage databases, business or personal directories,weather data, government information (e.g., construction updates or roadname changes), or traffic reports. Some embodiments of a map service mayupdate map service data (e.g., wireless network coverage) for analyzingfuture requests from client devices.

In some embodiments, the map service 2030 responds to requests from theclient devices 2002 a-2002 c for map information. The client devices mayrequest specific portions of a map, or specific map tiles (e.g.,specific tiles at specific zoom levels). In some embodiments, the clientdevices may provide the map service with starting locations (or currentlocations) and destination locations for a route calculations, andrequest turn-by-turn navigation data. A client device may also requestmap service rendering information, such as map textures or style sheets.Requests for other geographic data may include, but are not limited to,current location, wireless network coverage, weather, trafficinformation, or nearby points-of-interest.

The client devices 2002 a-2002 c that obtain map service data from themap service 2030 and render the data to display the map information intwo-dimensional and/or three-dimensional views. Some embodiments displaya rendered map and allow a user, system, or device to provide input tomanipulate a virtual camera for the map, changing the map displayaccording to the virtual camera's position, orientation, andfield-of-view. Various forms and input devices are implemented tomanipulate a virtual camera. In some embodiments, touch input, throughcertain single or combination gestures (e.g., touch-and-hold or a swipe)manipulate the virtual camera. Other embodiments allow manipulation ofthe device's physical location to manipulate a virtual camera. Otherinput devices to the client device may be used including, e.g., auditoryinput (e.g., spoken words), a physical keyboard, mouse, and/or ajoystick. Some embodiments provide various visual feedback to virtualcamera manipulations, such as displaying an animation of possiblevirtual camera manipulations when transitioning from two-dimensional mapviews to three-dimensional map views.

In some embodiments, a client device 2002 a-2002 c implements anavigation system (e.g., turn-by-turn navigation), which may be part ofan integrated mapping and navigation application. A navigation systemprovides directions or route information, which may be displayed to auser. As mentioned above, a client device may receive both map imagedata and route data from the map service 2030. In some embodiments, thenavigation feature of the client device provides real-time route anddirection information based upon location information and routeinformation received from a map service and/or other location system,such as a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system. A client device maydisplay map image data that reflects the current location of the clientdevice and update the map image data in real-time. The navigationfeatures may provide auditory or visual directions to follow a certainroute, and some embodiments display map data from the perspective of avirtual camera biased toward the route destination during turn-by-turnnavigation.

The client devices 2002 a-2002 c of some embodiments implement varioustechniques to utilize the received map service data (e.g., optimizedrendering techniques). In some embodiments, a client device locallystores some of the information used to render map data. For instance,client devices may store style sheets with rendering directions forimage data containing style identifiers, common image textures (in orderto decrease the amount of map image data transferred from the mapservice), etc. The client devices of some embodiments may implementvarious techniques to render two-dimensional and three-dimensional mapimage data, including, e.g., generating three-dimensional buildings outof two-dimensional building footprint data; modeling two-dimensional andthree-dimensional map objects to determine the client devicecommunication environment; generating models to determine whether maplabels are seen from a certain virtual camera position; and generatingmodels to smooth transitions between map image data.

In various embodiments, map service 2030 and/or other service(s) 2050are configured to process search requests from any of the clientdevices. Search requests may include but are not limited to queries forbusinesses, addresses, residential locations, points of interest, orsome combination thereof. Map service 2030 and/or other service(s) 2050may be configured to return results related to a variety of parametersincluding but not limited to a location entered into an address bar orother text entry field (including abbreviations and/or other shorthandnotation), a current map view (e.g., user may be viewing one location onthe multifunction device while residing in another location), currentlocation of the user (e.g., in cases where the current map view did notinclude search results), and the current route (if any). In variousembodiments, these parameters may affect the composition of the searchresults (and/or the ordering of the search results) based on differentpriority weightings. In various embodiments, the search results that arereturned may be a subset of results selected based on specific criteriaincluding but not limited to a quantity of times the search result(e.g., a particular point of interest) has been requested, a measure ofquality associated with the search result (e.g., highest user oreditorial review rating), and/or the volume of reviews for the searchresults (e.g., the number of times the search result has been review orrated).

In various embodiments, map service 2030 and/or other service(s) 2050are configured to provide auto-complete search results that aredisplayed on the client device, such as within the mapping application.For instance, auto-complete search results may populate a portion of thescreen as the user enters one or more search keywords on themultifunction device. In some cases, this feature may save the user timeas the desired search result may be displayed before the user enters thefull search query. In various embodiments, the auto complete searchresults may be search results found by the client on the client device(e.g., bookmarks or contacts), search results found elsewhere (e.g.,from the Internet) by map service 2030 and/or other service(s) 2050,and/or some combination thereof. As is the case with commands, any ofthe search queries may be entered by the user via voice or throughtyping. The multifunction device may be configured to display searchresults graphically within any of the map display described herein. Forinstance, a pin or other graphical indicator may specify locations ofsearch results as points of interest. In various embodiments, responsiveto a user selection of one of these points of interest (e.g., a touchselection, such as a tap), the multifunction device is configured todisplay additional information about the selected point of interestincluding but not limited to ratings, reviews or review snippets, hoursof operation, store status (e.g., open for business, permanently closed,etc.), and/or images of a storefront for the point of interest. Invarious embodiments, any of this information may be displayed on agraphical information card that is displayed in response to the user'sselection of the point of interest.

In various embodiments, map service 2030 and/or other service(s) 2050provide one or more feedback mechanisms to receive feedback from clientdevices 2002 a-2002 c. For instance, client devices may provide feedbackon search results to map service 2030 and/or other service(s) 2050(e.g., feedback specifying ratings, reviews, temporary or permanentbusiness closures, errors etc.); this feedback may be used to updateinformation about points of interest in order to provide more accurateor more up-to-date search results in the future. In some embodiments,map service 2030 and/or other service(s) 2050 may provide testinginformation to the client device (e.g., an AB test) to determine whichsearch results are best. For instance, at random intervals, the clientdevice may receive and present two search results to a user and allowthe user to indicate the best result. The client device may report thetest results to map service 2030 and/or other service(s) 2050 to improvefuture search results based on the chosen testing technique, such as anA/B test technique in which a baseline control sample is compared to avariety of single-variable test samples in order to improve results.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory machine readable mediumstoring a program for execution by at least one processing unit, theprogram for generating a navigation presentation for display on adisplay screen of a mobile device that navigates to a destination alonga map, the program comprising sets of instructions for: using a virtualcamera to define views of a map in order to generate the navigationpresentation that displays a representation of a device traveling alonga first route in the map to a destination; identifying an incident alongthe first route that requires identification of a second route to thedestination; and automatically displaying, on the navigationpresentation, successive map views representing corresponding routelocations, the corresponding route locations including a first locationof the incident along the first route and one or more second locationsalong the second route illustrating how the second route avoids theincident location, the successive upcoming map views generated byautomatically moving the virtual camera to each of the correspondinglocations.
 2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1,wherein the incident is one of: an accident along the first route;construction or blockage along the first route; and traffic congestionalong the first route.
 3. The non-transitory machine readable medium ofclaim 1, wherein the set of instructions for moving the virtual cameracomprises a set of instructions for moving the virtual camera from aperspective first position that captures successive three dimensional(3D) perspective views of the map to a top-down second position thatcaptures successive two dimensional (2D) views of the map.
 4. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the set ofinstructions for moving the virtual camera comprises a set ofinstructions for moving the virtual camera from a lower firstperspective position that captures successive three dimensional (3D)perspective views of the map that do not include the incident locationto a higher second perspective position that captures successive 3Dviews of the map that include the incident location.
 5. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the programfurther comprises sets of instructions for: generating first and secondrepresentations of the first and second routes for display in thesuccessive map views that are defined by the moved virtual camera;wherein the first and second representations have different appearancesin order to differentiate the new second route from the old first route.6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein theprogram further comprises sets of instructions for: providingnotification that the navigation presentation has switched from thefirst route to the second route; and providing an option to cancel theswitching of the navigation presentation to the second route and toreturn the navigation presentation back to using the first route.
 7. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the programfurther comprises sets of instructions for: providing notification thatthe navigation presentation will switch from the first route to thesecond route; and providing an option to cancel the impending switchingof the navigation presentation to the second route.
 8. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1, wherein the secondroute overlaps with the first route after the location of the incidentso that the second route provides a detour about the incident locationbut otherwise provides the same travel route to the destination as thefirst route.
 9. A mobile device comprising: a display device; a set ofprocessing units for executing instructions for generating a navigationpresentation for display on the display device of the mobile device asthe mobile device navigates to a destination along a map, the sets ofinstructions configuring the set of processing units to: use a virtualcamera, display a navigation presentation that includes successive viewsof a map and a representation of the mobile device traveling along afirst route in the map to a destination; identify an incident along thefirst route that requires identification of a second route to thedestination; and automatically displaying, on the navigationpresentation, successive map views representing corresponding routelocations, the corresponding route locations including a first locationof the incident along the first route and one or more second locationsalong the second route illustrating how the second route avoids theincident location, the successive upcoming map views generated byautomatically moving the virtual camera to each of the correspondinglocations.
 10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the incident is oneof: an accident along the first route; construction or blockage alongthe first route; and traffic congestion along the first route.
 11. Themobile device of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for moving thevirtual camera comprises a set of instructions for moving the virtualcamera from a perspective first position that captures successive threedimensional (3D) perspective views of the map to a top-down secondposition that captures successive two dimensional (2D) views of the map.12. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions formoving the virtual camera comprises a set of instructions for moving thevirtual camera from a lower first perspective position that capturessuccessive three dimensional (3D) perspective views of the map that donot include the incident location to a higher second perspectiveposition that captures successive 3D views of the map that include theincident location.
 13. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the programfurther comprises sets of instructions for: generating first and secondrepresentations of the first and second routes for display in thesuccessive map views that are defined by the moved virtual camera;wherein the first and second representations have different appearancesin order to differentiate the new second route from the old first route.14. A method of generating a navigation presentation, the method beingimplemented by a mobile device, the mobile device comprising a processorand a display device, the navigation presentation being generated fordisplay on the display device as the mobile device navigates to adestination along a map, the method comprising: using a virtual camera,display, by the processor, a navigation presentation that includessuccessive views of a map and a representation of the mobile devicetraveling along a first route in the map to a destination; identifying,by the processor, that an incident has occurred along the first routethat requires identification of a second route to the destination; andautomatically displaying, on the navigation presentation, successive mapviews representing corresponding route locations, the correspondingroute locations including a first location of the incident along thefirst route and one or more second locations along the second routeillustrating how the second route avoids the incident location, thesuccessive upcoming map views generated by automatically moving thevirtual camera to each of the corresponding locations.
 15. The method ofclaim 14, further comprising moving the virtual camera from aperspective first position that captures successive three dimensional(3D) perspective views of the map to a top-down second position thatcaptures successive two dimensional (2D) views of the map.
 16. Themethod of claim 14, further comprising moving the virtual camera from alower first perspective position that captures successive threedimensional (3D) perspective views of the map that do not include theincident location to a higher second perspective position that capturessuccessive 3D views of the map that include the incident location. 17.The method of claim 14, further comprising: providing notification thatthe navigation presentation has switched from the first route to thesecond route; and providing an option to cancel the switching of thenavigation presentation to the second route and to return the navigationpresentation back to using the first route.
 18. The method of claim 14,further comprising: providing notification that the navigationpresentation will switch from the first route to the second route; andproviding an option to cancel the impending switching of the navigationpresentation to the second route.
 19. The method of claim 14, whereinthe second route overlaps with the first route after the location of theincident so that the second route provides a detour about the incidentlocation but otherwise provides the same travel route to the destinationas the first route.